living room transformation: part I

One thing that surprises everyone when they walk in our house is how open it is.  The dining room, kitchen, and living room run along the back end of the house without any walls separating them.  (Thanks to our friends who did major remodeling over the years). I love being able to cook in the kitchen without being cut off from the rest of the house/people.  Since the living room is the main gathering point of the house and where we spend most of our time, I wanted to make it more my our style.  These next 6-ish posts will be about how we gradually transformed our living room to what it is now... but you'll have to be patient until the final reveal.

Here is what our living room looked like shortly after we moved in.  Don't you love how the fireplace extends to the top of the vaulted ceiling?  This is the view while standing in the kitchen:

I decided that since the space above the mantle on the fireplace was so large, it needed a big piece of artwork that "pops" and is the focal point.  The piece of artwork above is the one that's in our bedroom which you may remember from here and is obviously too small for that space.  I thought about buying a print, but then decided I wanted it to be original.  Plus, buying a print AND buying a large frame could really add up and be more expensive than I wanted.

So, back in November when I was really diggin' the chevrons I came to the conclusion that some zig-zag artwork would work.  I drove out to Michael's to get a large canvas (36" x 48") and some craft paint.  I decided to do yellow because it's a pretty neutral color without being too contrasty to the white.  My other thought was grey, but the walls are grey and I didn't want the room to be too monotone.

I made a stencil that was approximately 12 inches wide and 4 inches tall, then taped it off with painter's tape so I would have a smooth line for outlining the chevrons.

I started in the middle so there would be a centered chevron (I'm a type A person and everything has to be balanced).  I measured along the way to make sure everything was straight and even.

I kept going until someone stole my stencil.

After tracing, I taped it off with painter's tape.

The original yellow paint that I got was a little too sunshine-y for me, so I toned it down by adding a little white and a tiny amount of black.  Then I slapped on the yellow paint.

After impatiently waiting for the paint to dry, it was time for the best part: ripping off the tape and viewing the final product!

After doing a few touch ups, I finally got to put it on the mantle.  I feel like the size of the canvas fits perfectly above the fireplace.

I also painted the mantle black a while back.  I got the two vases from Home Goods (one of my all-time favorite home stores.)  I bought them before we moved in but before I swiped the card I had to get the approval from Ehren... because his opinion doesn't matters.

This was the first step in transforming our living room.  It's crazy to look at our living room NOW compared to what it looks like in this post.  The chevron painting still looks a little too contemporary against the brick and brass fireplace... but just you wait.  Those transformations are coming.